Saturday Night Live cast member Kristen Wiig is using her own money to option Clown Girl, the 2007 Monica Drake novel that Wiig will adapt into a feature script. She wants to play the heroine, Nita, a clown in crisis who works street fairs as Sniffles the Clown. Nita is barely surviving in her hometown of Baloneytown, pining for a dream man who used her to finance his attendance at clown college,. As a result, she struggles to live and tries to resist the potentially lucrative prostitution trade involving clown fetishists. The dark novel was published by Hawthorne Press in 2007 and the option deal is being handled by Inkwell Management.

While few female cast-members have flourished after their SNL runs, Wiig—who does some of the edgiest work the show has seen in years—is getting a real bigscreen chance. It helps that Wiig, like Tina Fey, is writing her own projects. She next co-stars with Will Forte and Ryan Phillippe in the SNL-transfer MacGruber. Her big opportunity comes at Universal, which is making an untitled comic vehicle for her that will be directed by Paul Feig and produced by Judd Apatow and Barry Mendel. Wiig co-wrote the script with Annie Mumolo, and will play a maid of honor who battles a bridesmaid for the attention and approval of the bride. Jon Hamm, Rose Byrne and Dianne Wiest are circling roles.

16 Comments

TomF • on May 6, 2010 9:13 am

Kristen is beautiful and incredibly smart, but I would love to see her get out of the disturbed-woman-with-singular-tic rut that she’s dug into on SNL. Her recurring characters are all basically the same woman with different costumes. Target checkout lady, the one-upsmanship lady, the can’t-keep-a-secret lady… it’s basically different slices of the same roast, and it wears thin after three or four minutes. Can she carry a movie? I really hope so.

We love Kristen Wiig. What a talented women.She really is the only standout funny women on SNL nowadays. We would love you see her become a big movie star, and can not wait to check out ‘MacGruber.’

WiigFan • on May 6, 2010 9:13 am

She’s got the most potential to do well (film-wise) from SNL. She’s cute, she’s funny and she’s got a wide-range. If she’s writing her own stuff, hopefully that helps. Not sure how MacGruber’s going to play (when are they going to realize that 5 minute sketches don’t always play as well at 90 minutes) but regardless, Wiig whould be a high point.

Glad to hear she’s branching out to doing originals on her own.

anonymous • on May 6, 2010 9:13 am

Who would have thought, but that movie looks funnier than any of the 4-minutes-too-long sketches. I’m actually excited to see it. Special effects alone are obviously better.

Michael • on May 6, 2010 9:13 am

Glad she is finally going to be taking a lead role in a film. She is such a great comedic actor, and has only been used for bit parts in the past. Cannot wait to see where her career goes.

kate • on May 6, 2010 9:13 am

good for her, she’s such a real talent, i’m there…..

Dwigt • on May 6, 2010 9:13 am

Good to see that Wiig takes her career into her own hands. She has some range (she was an highlight of “Walk Hard” or “Knocked Up” for instance) but she plays the same set of characters with OCD every week on heavy rotation on Saturday Night Live. I’d blame the writers instead of her.

Of course, if her own project fails, I’d have to blame the writer…

Soyo • on May 6, 2010 9:13 am

Her scenes in ‘Ghost Town’ were great as well, I thought

Pagliacci • on May 6, 2010 9:13 am

Fantastic news! I thought they’d never make a follow-up to Shakes the Clown!

Tunnel Lighter • on May 6, 2010 9:13 am

“Shakes The Clown is the Citizen Cane of alcoholic clown movies…”
if you have not seen it, you are very much missing something.
if only for the opening sequence.

Laura Reynolds • on May 6, 2010 9:13 am

Makes me think of Steve Martin and “The Jerk.”

She should definitely meet with David Wain as a possible director. David’s great with silly pathos.

firebrand • on May 6, 2010 9:13 am

Granted, she’s gorgeous. But she’s not even remotely funny.

Case in point: Gilly. Few recurring SNL characters are as completely unfunny as that one.

I think this definitely sounds like a companion piece to ‘Shakes the Clown’ … and, no kidding, that was a great movie.

Anonymouth makes a good point, but also keep this in mind… maybe it is easier to make a good movie out of what he/she described as really bad source material (since I haven’t read it, I can’t judge) …as opposed to say, optioning some beloved and well-crafted book… and then just trying not to screw THAT up.

Anonymous • on May 6, 2010 9:13 am

as much as i’d love to see clown girl as a movie, if this woman really plans on doing it, she’s got big shoes to fill (pun intended)-its an epic book, and nita is quite the character!